Luis Abinader, running for the PRM opposition party, says that if he is elected President on 15 May 2016 he will carry out a complete overhaul of government in support of job creation, a 40% reduction in power rates, improved quality of education, creating the conditions for an independent prosecution service and justice, as well as banning presidential re-election. He advocated for an associative model to support small and medium-sized business, doubling government social programs, ending monopolies, pushing for primary medical care centers and prioritizing citizen safety.
Abinader was speaking to a TV audience of Telesistema (Channel 11), and Teleantillas (Channel 2) that was also transmitted on radio yesterday evening, Wednesday 27 April 2016 as part of the Corripio media group presidential candidate presentations.
Abinader also favors starting to dismantle the current transport monopoly, and increasing collective transport.
He stressed that his government would focus on programs for women as part of its push to fight poverty. “The face of poverty in the Dominican Republic is female; the single woman who lives in our rural areas,” he said.
He said he would implement a fiscal reform to reduce taxation rates.
The PRM candidate said he would boost tourism in the southwestern province of Barahona with a free trade port and a multi-modal tourism port. He said he would maintain the 4% of GDP for education and would back a program to provide a laptop to each student. Luis Abinader said more efficient spending would result in savings of RD$6.2 billion, which would be used to fight crime and increase police agents’ wages to US$500 each with housing plans.
Abinader said his government would focus on clean energy production instead of coal-fired power generation, a major project being promoted by the Medina administration.
He favored promoting a free trade agreement with Haiti while strengthening border security.
He said that he believed the JCE should carry out a manual vote count in addition to the electronic count.
Abinader bajaría factura de energía al 40% y crearía 200 mil empleos al año
